Insteon battery devices

[4481hoods]

Why all of a sudden are my Insteon battery devices  not working. This includes motion sensors and open close sensors. I see activity on the network module but that is it. My zoos open/close sensors are not affected. This happened before 5.91. Not sure how to fix this problem. Any ideas???

Ed

[Guy Lavoie]

If you look at a open/close sensor in admin console and go momentarily press the link button on the device, does it blink the LED and do you see it's status update in the admin console?

I've had that kind of thing happen (all 9 open/close sensors showing blank status) after a controller reboot, which it does when you upgrade it. Pressing the button on each one updated the status. It would have been nice if it sent a status update along with the heartbeat, just to resync the status over the next 24 hours.

[oberkc]

The only thing that comes to mind that would suddenly and globally affect all battery devices would be RF interference or some global change (such as a PLM replacement) where the changes failed to write (are there little green icons for the battery devices on the device listing?)

It is hard for me to imagine battery or device failure striking all devices simultaneously.

Can you move any of the devices closer to the PLM and see if this helps?

[Techman]

The status of an Insteon battery operated device won't show up in the admin console until the state of the battery operated device changes.

[Guy Lavoie]

I was just searching for a thread discussing problems with incoming Insteon status changes not being detected and came across this one, which was recent and left unresolved.

I just had a similar experience, where I noticed motion detectors were not firing off programs. Then I tried manually activating an Insteon wall switch and status was not updating in admin console. Yet I could turn devices on and off from the admin console. Hmm, that was unusual: commands going out were ok but not status coming in. The things I tried in order:

1 - reboot the eisy

2- unplug and plug back in the PLM

3- restore the PLM. As that was happening, I also went to the bedroom and took the mini controller I added just a few days ago, and turned it's power switch off and back on. The motion sensors started working again, and going back to the admin console, receiving status updates was also ok. I can't tell if it's the PLM restore or power cycling the mini controller (or maybe neither) that fixed it.

Has anyone else ever had a similar experience?

[IndyMike]

13 hours ago, Guy Lavoie said:

I was just searching for a thread discussing problems with incoming Insteon status changes not being detected and came across this one, which was recent and left unresolved.

I just had a similar experience, where I noticed motion detectors were not firing off programs. Then I tried manually activating an Insteon wall switch and status was not updating in admin console. Yet I could turn devices on and off from the admin console. Hmm, that was unusual: commands going out were ok but not status coming in. The things I tried in order:

1 - reboot the eisy

2- unplug and plug back in the PLM

3- restore the PLM. As that was happening, I also went to the bedroom and took the mini controller I added just a few days ago, and turned it's power switch off and back on. The motion sensors started working again, and going back to the admin console, receiving status updates was also ok. I can't tell if it's the PLM restore or power cycling the mini controller (or maybe neither) that fixed it.

Has anyone else ever had a similar experience?

@Guy Lavoie, hard to know which operation corrected things (PLM restore or controller power cycle).  What specific mini controller are you using?

1. If the mini controller were flooding your system with communications (RF or Powerline?), it could effectively jam your motion sensors.  The motions won't necessarily be aware of the communication resulting in a collision.  On the other hand, the PLM/Admin console would wait for and open communication window and therefor might be able to send commands.
2. If your PLM link table was "upset", you would be able to send commands to devices but not receive.   

Since you just recently added the mini controller, that's where I'd put my bet.   

[Guy Lavoie]

It's a mini remote, so it's RF only. That's why I suspected it in particular, since I only added it a few days ago, and that it appeared as though RF communications was being impacted (though the was switch I tried was dual band). But I certainly could send out commands from the admin console. It would have been interesting to try to send out a command over RF, though devices controlled only by RF are rare. An Insteon thermostat would be one example.

I'm just wondering if others have ever had a similar problem occur. Learning as I go. If it ever happens again, the first thing I'll try will be to power cycle that mini remote.

[IndyMike]

As a quick test, I got out my old Remotelinc to use as a jammer. 

1. Ran a standard "scene test" on my basement lighting  (100% success).
2. Ran the same scene test while holding a on button on the Remotelinc (bright command).  4 out of 18 Pass (22%).

What's interesting about this test:

1. The remotelinc is not linked to the system.  Nothing shows in the event viewer.  Since every Insteon device is a repeater, it is still flooding RF and powerline.
2. I effectively hung the PLM/ISY while I was holding the Bright button.  The ISY didn't appear to progress until I released the button.  Event viewer was hung in mid-test.

 

 

Standard Scene Test:

 

Scene Test Jammed Using Remotelinc (Bright)

[Guy Lavoie]

Cool, and thanks for the experiment. Adds to the science!

It's pretty well how we would expect things to go with RF jamming. I had already seen a similar effect with commands getting delayed and retried when something was happening with the signal path (I forget the exact circumstances). Insteon is quite effective at that.

When I decided to power cycle the mini remote, I first ran my fingers lightly over the buttons to see if any appeared to be stuck, and didn't find any. It could still have been a problem internal to the device.